As Maduro takes Venezuela into uncharted waters, the opposition has few options

Critics called it ‘‘zero hour’’ for Venezuelan democracy, a tipping point into dictatorship. But after the socialist government here held a widely condemned election on Sunday, the opposition in this teetering South American nation faced an existential question.

What next?

The Trump administration on Monday slapped financial sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro.

The sanctions freeze any assets Maduro may have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with him. They were outlined in a brief notice by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ahead of a White House announcement from President Trump’s national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

McMaster described the election, which creates a constituent assembly that will rewrite Venezuela’s constitution, as an ‘‘outrageous seizure of absolute power’’ that ‘‘represents a very serious blow to democracy in our hemisphere.’’

‘‘Maduro is not just a bad leader, he is now a dictator,’’ McMaster said.